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1966 Ford Galaxie 500 7-Litre Restoration Thread


V8TV

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This '66 Ford Galaxie 7-Litre just arrived in the shop for a resto... we're excited about working with the owner on an uncommon Muscle Car!

 

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This one will be an all-stock restoration, as the car has been in the same family since new!

It's a very cool car.

 

It's a pretty solid car, we're really diggin' the Emberglo color scheme.

 

These 1966 Ford 7-Litres are very unique cars because they were used as a platform to launch the new for 1966 Ford 428 in. V-8 engine.

 

They were advertised as their own model, even though they were essentially  a jazzed up Galaxie.

 

We had the pleasure of spending some time with a very rare 427 powered 7-Litre on Muscle Car Of The Week.   This is one of 2 427-powered convertibles ever built:

 

 

Now our '66 7-Litre is not as rare as the 427 Convertible, but it is a pretty low production car, with around 11,175 built, with 2367 convertibles.

 

We extracted this car out of a storage barn and brought it to the V8 Speed & Resto Shop for a once over.

 

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Edited by V8TV (see edit history)
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At first glance, it is a pretty clean car. There is some rust bubbling in the quarter panels, and it is sitting low because the trunk was full of extra parts at this point.

 

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One of the most unique features of these cars is the interior. The bucket seats are similar to what you would see in a Thunderbird, but it has a full backseat with plenty of room. The wood rimmed steering wheel is spoked with racy-looking holes, and it has a full length automatic console on the floor.

 

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This is a true hardtop, meeting there is no pillar when the windows are rolled down.

 

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We were impressed by the fit of this car, the door gaps, deck lid, and even the hood fit very well. The hood was interesting, because there were no hinges installed when we picked it up.    The engine have been removed and rebuilt several years ago, and we did not bring it in with the car. We will freshen up and install the engine later.

 

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There are many unique parts to the 7-Litre model, one of which is the grille. Time will tell if we restore this one or find a different piece, but most of these parts are not reproduced.

 

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Underneath, the car demonstrated typical Midwestern rust, but the floors appear pretty solid.

 

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We gave the car a bath, and we began our disassembly and documentation process.

 

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The back sides of the fenders seemed to be dirty but not rusty.

 

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THe disassembly continued removing the heater assembly from the firewall.

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The crew was happy to see that the floor seemed to be in excellent shape. 

 

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The original bucket seats were dirty, but perhaps they will clean up without the need for reupholstering. 

 

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All the parts were photographed, tagged, and bagged or wrapped for safe storage.   

 

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Once we removed all the parts from the trunk, we spied some rust in the seams where the wheel tubs attach to the trunk floor, but we’ll get the whole picture after the paint is removed. 

 

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Found a little crust in the doors… 

 

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Door condition reminds me of my '73 Gran Torino Sport.  That wasn't the only place my poor car was rusty, either.  The color was Medium Copper Metallic, which appears much like this car.  Thanks for your work and posting on the forum.

 

This one was hiding a lot of rust, as you'll see as the story develops.     Thanks for having us!

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And a little crust in the door skin…

 

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The teardown continues… 

 

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Soon, the body was ready to remove from the frame. 

 

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And the body was mounted on the rotisserie for paint removal. 

 

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The chassis was disassembled for media blasting. 

 

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We elected to use a dustless media blasting technique for paint removal.   In this process, crushed recycled glass bead is the cutting media, and it is blasted at the subject with high-pressure water.   The water contains a rust inhibitor, so the clean panels do not immediately start corroding.   The benefit is that the water keeps the temperature down to prevent the friction of the glass bead impact from heating and warping the panels.   The other benefit is that the glass bead does not harm the environment, as the dust simply integrates with the gravel in our lot.     

 

Go Green Dustless Blasting brought their mobile unit to our shop to do the work. 

 

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The first sheetmetal panels stripped clean, without significant damage or warping.  

 

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great job, at the rate you are going you should be done in a few weeks, ha,ha, i follow you every day.

 

Right!   We all know these jobs only take a week or so!      ;)    Thanks for following along, we'll try to share things that are worth checking out.   

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Numerous pinholes and previously damaged areas were revealed after paint stripping. 

 

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The Go Green crew rinsed the body shell and we rolled the body shell into the paint booth for epoxy primer. 

 

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There are numerous areas that will require repairs. 

 

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This is below the rear package tray. 

 

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Quarter panel:

 

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Other quarter panel:

 

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There are areas of the frame that require reconstruction as well. 

 

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It sure didnt look that bad when you first got it. were you able to get inside the box frame? green team did a great jom.

 

They never look as bad as they really are.       We were able to get inside the frame, you'll see the repairs soon!

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The frame on this car had some obvious repairs over the years.    We noticed that these large sections of angle iron steel were added to “fix” something… wonder what it is?

 

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After a little cutting with a wheel on both sides of the frame… 

 

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… these giant holes were revealed on the driver’s and passenger side of the frame!   Yucko. 

 

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Obviously, the correct way to repair this stuff is not to just hide it under a patch.      The top side of the frame was still intact.    Out comes the rusty metal.    

 

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We measured the rails and determined that 2” x 2” box channel is a perfect fit inside the stock rails.    We elected to leave all 4 sides of the box tube intact to add a little more rigidity to the stock frame.   The reinforcements were MIG welded in place, and ground flush.    

 

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It’s hard to tell the repair ever occurred.  

 

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Neat cars I recall working on one in NC. I still have a big Holley carb that might have come from one so must look at the numbers.

Robert

 

Let me know if you find it!   Thanks!

 

outstanding work. it is nice to have a lot of light.

 

Thank you Gary, our shop is bright and it is helpful.  

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A couple more “soft spots” were repaired on the chassis with new steel of a matching gauge. 

 

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The fully repaired frame was then brought back into the paint booth for epoxy repairs and final paint. 

 

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Next, the crew mounted the body on a fixture to begin the sheetmetal repairs.    These cars are cool and have a following, but parts are not as plentiful we’d like, so restorers are faced with some decisions to make. 

 

The wheel tubs were very rusty on this car, and replacements are not made for it.   The good thing is that the tubs interchange with regular Galaxies, and there were many thousands of those made.    We obtained a clean replacement set of wheel tubs removed from a car at Desert Valley Auto Parts in Arizona.    They cut them from a car and shipped them to us. 

 

Upon arrival, we trimmed off the excess rough edges.   The DVAP crew cut them oversize so we could do the finish work in-house.  

 

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Our crew drilled and ground away the original spot welds in the car and removed the original wheel tubs. 

 

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Original tub removed. 

 

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The DVAP tubs were media blasted and epoxy primed. 

 

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After priming, we repaired any rust pinholes or damage in the DVAP tubs.   They were very clean, but sometimes the steel peels when being un-installed, etc. 

 

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Edge repaired

 

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I worked a summer job June through August 1966 outside the Ford assembly plant in Louisville, KY and remember a few of these cars.  We were in the rail yard where they marshalled the new cars and we loaded them onto tri-level rail cars (auto racks) for shipment wherever.  We also received new Fords from other plants and unloaded them.   The 7 Litre badge didn't mean much to me at that time because I wasn't a car guy and they were big boats anyway. I was more interested in the Mustangs and Fairlanes which came into the yard from other plants.   But I do remember those luxurious interiors.  We were loading the new cars onto rail cars (auto racks) for shipment wherever.  And I can still remember that new car smell in cars that had been sitting closed up in the 90 degree heat.   Joe

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  • 1 month later...
Many 1960’s cars held leaves, pine needles, dust, and debris at the bottoms of the fenders and in the lower cowl boxes, and that stuff holds moisture and eventually rusts the car from the inside out.   This one was no different.     Here, the original rusty panels are drilled and removed, and repair panels are fabricated and welded in place.  

 

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The new front piece welded in

 

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And the new side piece attached. 

 

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A new inner rocker section was made to replace the rusty original. 

 

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Like most old cars, there were numerous holes in the cabin floor. The crew assessed each one, and fabricated steel repair panels where needed.  These were made by hand using hammer and dolly techniques, the Mittler brothers bead roller, and other tricks of the trade.  

 

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They were butt welded in with an HTP MIG 200 welder, and the edges were metal finished, so that they were not visible when finished.  New brackets were fabricated were necessary as well.

 

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